Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Simple Caramelized Chicken

When I found THIS recipe, it looked like such an easy recipe that I prayed it would work for a quick dinner for my family :)  And it did!  I don't like refined sugars or store-bought mixes that contain msg, so I switched the brown sugar with sucanat and used my own Italian seasoning mix instead.  And I added a few pats of butter on the top just to make it really good and in case the sucanat did not caramelize as well.  I was pleased with the results.  So here is the deal with this recipe: it is super easy to prepare but you do really have to let it cook for the full hour if you want the caramelization to occur.  So plan ahead.  I also found that my home-made fresh Italian seasoning was stronger than the store-bought kind with bigger pieces of parsley, etc, and I did not need quite as much as the recipe called for.  I am going to type the original ratio, but just keep that in mind if your Italian seasoning is as strong as mine :)  Also, my girls don't like to see all that "green" seasoning on their chicken, so I just sprinkled a bit of garlic powder, onion powder, sea salt, and sucanat on theirs instead of the mix.  They really liked it.

Ingredients:
3 1/2 pounds boneless chicken
1 (7 oz.) pkg. Italian seasoning mix
1/2 cup brown  sugar, packed  (or sucanat)

Preheat oven to 350; grease a pan or put down aluminum foil as it tends to stick.  (I used stoneware and it worked well.)  Rinse chicken; pat dry.  Mix sugar and seasonings.  Coat chicken with mixture and sprinkle any leftovers on top.  Bake for about an hour, turning the chicken several times to coat and you can also dribble the sauce on top to make sure it is covered well.

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